Red Sky Over Thebes

By Henry Bedford-Jones

The Sphinx Emerald passed into other hands – to reappear centuries later when conquering Cambyses came storming into Egypt with his Persian legions... Readers are treated to authentic historical dramas, all centering on the mysterious jewel that seems to contain a miniature image of the sphinx. A great pulp extravaganza!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ktoczyta.pl
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9788382924428

Book preview

Henry Bedford-Jones

Red Sky Over Thebes

Warsaw 2022

Contents

Red Sky Over Thebes

Red Sky Over Thebes

The Sphinx Emerald passed into other hands–to reappear centuries later when conquering Cambyses came storming into Egypt with his Persian legions...

NEKHT was his name. With a wooden-fork plow and a bullock, he was tilling his field outside the tiny Nile village of peasants, when the Greek captain came from Thebes with the news. An odd fellow, Nekht–tall, thewy, bronzed as any other farmer in the village, but with a hawk-nose and quick eyes of striking intelligence. He usually kept them half shut, and in the village itself passed for a fool. No one here knew or suspected his secret.

He lived alone with his mother, who told the Greek, named Peleus, where to find him. Nekht saw him coming along the edge of the fields, and recognized him; for although the soldier wore a tunic over his armor, the proud lift of the head and the step of authority could not be hidden.

The captain of the temple guards, Nekht said, and pulled the bullock out of the furrow. That means a message for me. What now, friend Peleus?

Greetings, said the other, who knew him well, and news. I have a boat waiting; the high priest of Amon wants you.

And the news?

If the Nile ran the other way, the water would be red. There’s hell to pay, but the news must keep until we’re afloat.

I’ll take the bullock home, and go, Nekht said simply. Come along.

He unyoked the bullock from the plow, and they started back to the village. As to the news, Nekht had heard enough to guess what it must be; he was already seeking beyond the words, mentally. He, of all people, needed no telling that Egypt was a leaky boat in a bad storm shaking the world. During the past two hundred years the great country had been gradually disintegrating. Still powerful, still crammed with all the looted riches of the earth, it had been ruled by Assyrians, Ethiopians, Greeks–anyone strong enough to seize the throne and defend the desert frontiers. The